Author: CBK

CBA vol 40 – Worst Case Scenario
(Guidelines for text pieces and comics for this issue at the bottom of this description)

What’s the worst that could happen? And if that happens, what’s the worst that could happen? And if that happens, what’s the worst that could happen? And so on…

There’s a psychiatric method in cognitive behavioral therapy called “The Downward Arrow Technique” where you begin by writing down the answers to this repeated question and we thought it’d be the perfect theme for our upcoming CBA vol 40. Especially since this is an election year in Sweden. Especially since war and famine and climate change and personal disasters are on the horizon. So how bad can it get?

Editors note: The goal in the Downward Arrow Technique is to explore your core beliefs and work through them, and is often used for anxiety, phobias and other disruptive thought patterns. This method is very practical, simple and effective in helping the person get to the root of their negative thoughts and unhealthy beliefs about themselves. However, this is not the goal in CBA vol 40. We just want to know the worst.

—SUBMISSION GUIDELINES—
Please read and follow these guidelines:
Number of pages: We prefer comics that are about 5-30 pages, but any number is welcome.
Format: 20x26cm
Color: Black and white
Language: English
Format: .TIF
Resolution: 1200 dpi line art or 300 dpi grayscale
Bleed: 5mm. Think you know how to handle bleed? Read this to make sure you know what we mean: http://cbkcomics.com/bleed-explained/Within this space, there are no limits.

Please send us high-resolution files from the start.
Also include a short presentation text about yourself, with one URL (if you have a website).
Please ask us if you are unsure about formats, resolution, bleed, etc. We prefer stupid questions to bad files. And there are no stupid questions!

Unfortunately we cannot offer you any payment for participating. If we publish your submission you will receive 10 free copies of the issue. That’s all we can offer at this date. Hopefully you will find being in CBA an enjoyable experience. Naturally, copyright for your material will stay in your hands.

—TEXT GUIDELINES—
We’re looking for texts that touch upon this subject, preferably articles, essays and exploratory texts. We’re not looking for short stories in this issue.

—COMICS GUIDELINES—
Think of a scenario where you imagine the absolute worst thing that could happen.
When you have that in mind, ask: if that happens, whats the worst that could happen?
When you have that answer continue asking it about 3 more times until you’ve got a clear story.
Use this as a script for your comic.

Opening: November 18, 17-22 @ Hybriden (Claesgatan 8, Malmö)
The exhibition will remain until November 28.

Join us as we dive into a red world. Tonight we’ll explore just what it means to BLEED. What does blood mean to you? Are you afraid of it? Do you worship it? Or is it just the color that attracts you?

At Hybriden you will see artists draw blood and see their visual interpretations of the theme.

It will indeed be a red experience. We will overwhelm your senses! Not just by the artwork itself, but the music will be tailored for this night. The wine will be blessed and prepared. Amongst all of this we will have a blood fountain.

The exhibition is accompanied by CBA vol 35: BLEED that includes a wide array of comics on the same theme.

“When the last story is told, its absence rings with colour: Shapes & structure linger”– Like the clap of thunder when the air rushes to fill the vacuum from a supersonic plane, Haverholm poses the question: When the last story is told, what fills the space it leaves?

Explore that space together with us at our releaseparty for this enigmatic new work by Allan Haverholm!

When the last story is told
In the latest book by visual artist Allan Haverholm, narrative gives way to another order of meaning. Although the pages are divided into comic book grids there is nothing to constitute a traditional story, or even pictures in a sense that one would expect. The only text in the book, quoted above, frames the 60 pages of minimalist colour compositions alternatingly obscured with bold strokes of white paint and abstract, black textures.

The book questions one of the basic elements of our culture: storytelling and its underlying structures. Its very title suggests a potential end of narrative, but also that something else may fill the gap, a still-fluid substance or undefined fictional construct forming after this universal aphasia. Like a message from an alien mind, When the last story is told is loaded with meaning encoded in an undecipherable language.

Allan Haverholm (b.1976)
Since his 2006 book debut (the 300 pages Sortmund, hailed as Denmark’s first graphic novel), Allan Haverholm has stubbornly explored the comics medium for new approaches to the art form, changing effortlessly between a wide range of expressions to fit each new project. Persistent themes in his work include language and music, and their application in comics form.
When the last story is told is Haverholm’s eighth book as a single author; he has illustrated some fifty books, published several collaborations with likeminded artists, and appeared in more anthologies than he cares to think of or even count. His art has been exhibited internationally.

C’est Bon Kultur will attend this years International Comics Festival in Stockholm, May 9th–10th.
The Stockholm International Comics Festival [SIS] will take place for the seventeenth time in May 2015 (plus pre-events earlier in the week) organized by Serieteket and friends.

Meet us this weekend! Our table is located in Hörsalsfoajén, table F8. Adjacent to Tusen Serier, Wormgod and Ritualen.

We’ll have a great stash of CBA vol 28, Allan Haverholm’s hot-off-the-press When the last story is told. And everything else that we’ve made so far. Our book fair prices are super cheap, so don’t miss out!

Signs of science? The science of signs? Or neither, or both.
Deadline: 1 September 2014
How about the sleep depriving thought of eternity when you turn off the lights at night. Of the ever reaching deepness of space, black holes and the creation of photons in the core of the sun.How about when you get lost in thought, staring at your thumb, thinking about how the cells in your skin work and work and work, divide and fall off. The molecules they are made of. The vanishing weight of the atoms.

How did the insects develop wings? What is the purpose of the flick-flack of the Rechenbergi spider, the tiny squeak of the desert rain frog, the Higgs boson? And what is dark energy anyway? The history of the natural sciences is filled with wonder, with horror and gore, with idealism and the search for truth, but above all curiosity.

—

C’est Bon invites you to send in your work for our upcoming issue, Signs and Science! Best suited are comics about 4–22 pages. The format is 200×260 mm (7.9×10.2 in), full colour, in English or wordless. Within this space, there are no limits. We accept low-res files for consideration and will ask you for high-res files if your submission is accepted.

Unfortunately we can’t offer you any payment for participating. If we publish your submission you will receive 5 free copies of the issue and we will promote you and your work on our website, on social forums, in press releases etc. That’s all we can offer at this date. Hopefully you will find being in C’est Bon Anthology an enjoyable experience. Naturally, copyright for your material will stay in your hands.

This thursday we premiere the exhibition “Sequential Investigations: the New Comics” in Sweden!

Sequential Investigations is an exhibition of original art, prints, and wall projections showcasing some of the finest experimental artists working on the periphery of the comics form, pushing and probing the potential of sequential storytelling.

How to talk about comics in terms that don’t ignore or even exclude one aspect or other? Most people with the slightest interest in the form know that genre trappings or age divisions don’t make any sense at this point. 30 years ago people proclaimed that comics had “grown up”, but that term seems to be moot now that comics for all and any ages have gained general acceptance.

The father of modern manga, Osamu Tezuka, is quoted as saying that comics “should be like air”. Depending on your interpretation, that prediction may have come true, as sequential narrative has become a natural form of expression, both for traditional comics artists trying to break into a steadily narrowing mainstream, and for artists from other fields who test the comics grammar in new, often unexpected contexts.

That is probably the common denominator between the artists presented in this exhibition: that they use the form as naturally as breathing. Their work doesn’t relate to comics as they were, but as they have always been at their core, that is, a set of syntaxes that anyone can use to communicate their own personal message. These are no “grown-up” comics, or even a “new” kind of comics as the exhibition title could be construed; rather, they are distinct, artistic visions that are also very clearly recognizable as comics. Within the sequential framework the exhibitors probe and explore the possibilities of comics and, as it were, chart the unmapped areas in the process.

All of the above posters are A3 format and printed on heavy art stock, and we will obviously be selling those at the Stockholm festival, as well as all our latest publications, until we can sell no more (after that we do a song and dance)!